Applying to College

Baltimore, MD - Applying to college isn’t an easy task, especially not when it’s combined with schoolwork, extracurricular activities, jobs, internships, and sports. For seniors in high school who have to endure all of this work right now, stressed would be an understatement. They have all heard “don’t procrastinate”, but as Cherry Abdou, a senior at Western High School, says “You procrastinate to do the application because you don’t really want to write an essay even if you want to write you have to reviewer it a million times and that is kind of stressful.”

That may be true, but it’s still not a good enough reason to procrastinate, especially with something so important. College applications aren’t just another English paper you have to write; they are much more important. What college you get into and the college experience you get will affect your future, so it’s important to take the process seriously.

Elena Hicks, the Director of Undergraduate Admission at Loyola, believes that it’s good to start thinking about topics for your essay during your junior year or the summer prior to senior year. She suggests “Maybe look at 5-10 different things that happened either academically, or in your life, or in your activities that could be possible subjects.” She also emphasizes students who want to apply to colleges should start exploring their junior year. It’s very important for juniors to start looking colleges and visiting campuses, so when senior year comes they know where they want to apply to.

For current and future seniors, Elena Hicks suggests to apply online, use the common application, and make sure that senior grades are consistently high. Applying online would make it easier for the student to fill out the application and it’s easier for the admissions board to receive it. The common application is a college admission application that has 415 member colleges and universities in the United States which allows a student to use one application to apply to as many of those 415 colleges or university as they want. Also, remember that senior grades are very important and that colleges do check it so it’s important to maintain a high grade point average (GPA). If, by chance, something does happen and someone’s grades drop, it’s important for them to contact the admissions office and explain what happened.

Elena Hicks also enforces the importance of meeting application deadlines, making sure they have included every element the application requires, and that an official teacher’s recommendation is one sent directly from the school and not by the student. A late application or one that is missing something is almost always ignored, so it’s imperative for students to make sure their application is complete and they should send it one week in advance of the deadline. Seniors should also know that an official recommendation from a teacher is not one that they sent in themselves, but it is one sent from the school.

The college application process can get very hectic and that is why it’s important for students to start early and they should make sure they follow the directions pointed out above to make the process easier and less time consuming.